PITTSBURGH, PA—October 26, 2020—Cancer treatment often causes symptoms that result in treatment delays and unplanned care, which adversely affects patient outcomes, healthcare costs, and patient satisfaction. To decrease those possibilities, the ONS Center for Innovation launched ONS On-Call™, an oncology-specific decision support tool to guide standardized, evidence-based symptom assessment and leverage ONS’s proprietary evidence-based resources for patient-reported symptoms. Designed by nurses, the cloud-hosted tool ensures best practices in the clinic and institution by providing nurses with guided, comprehensive, and evidence-based assessments that illuminate the causative factors of patients’ symptoms and experience.

“Earlier symptom identification, comprehensive assessment, and prompt interventions reduce unplanned care,” Michele Galioto, DNP, RN, CNS, executive director of the ONS Center for Innovation, said. “This tool gives healthcare providers and institutions the ability to enhance documentation and efficiency, improve communication among the healthcare team, and promote an active role for patients in their care.”  

ONS On-Call guides comprehensive assessments and augments critical thinking with essential clinical resources. The content is derived from the highly regarded Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy Guidelines and Recommendations for Practice and other ONS clinical resources and is delivered through an interactive digital tool designed for use during in-person and virtual patient meetings. It captures symptoms and severity from patient interviews or within a patient-directed workflow through guided symptom algorithms and patient-friendly language.

The robust dashboards featured in ONS On-Call help to inform individual and population-specific care. In addition, it can identify high-risk responses from patients. The cloud-hosted tool is HIPAA compliant, uses institutional single sign-on processes, and includes SMART on FHIR technology.

Learn more about on ONS On-Call at ons.org, or schedule a demonstration at your institution by emailing centerforinnovation@ons.org.

ONS is a professional association that represents 100,000 nurses and is the professional home to more than 35,000 members. ONS is committed to promoting excellence in oncology nursing and the transformation of cancer care. Since 1975, ONS has provided a professional community for oncology nurses, developed evidence-based education programs and treatment information, and advocated for patient care, all in an effort to improve quality of life and outcomes for patients with cancer and their families. Learn more at ons.org.